King of Shadows
by VoxNexus-2
Summary: Fuelled by the sadistic power of the Orichalcos, the shadowed soul of Yami Marik sets out to reclaim the Millennium Items and become Pharaoh.


Marik had never felt so alive. His body being assaulted by endless waves of energy pulsating from the Orichalcos Seal blessed onto his body. The vibrations of shadow energy hummed against his ears; tickling and warming his skin as the darkness of the shadow realm engulfed him. The all-seeing eye gleaming between his furrowed brows dimmed and then revived a swampy green-the color of the seal. His eyes were a cold onyx, with an underlying haze of dark red. He let out a low laugh that burned his throat as his body writhed with signs of hyper-vascularity.

In exchange for the soul of another, his demonized spirit-once suffocating from the loneliness of the shadow realm-had been summoned after the soul of an equally powerful yami had been lost to the Orichalcos. Marik's soul now belonged to the Great Beast Leviathan, but with giving the promise of his service, he had been granted autonomy. His body entirely separate from that of his weaker, alter-self.

"I assure you Leviathan, the soul of the Pharaoh will reside within you," _so that I will become Pharaoh._

Engrossed in the music blaring through his headphone, Malik bobbed his head rhythmically, his hips jerking from side-to-side as he maneuvered his way around his apartment. His bachelor pad was tidier than most, the pristine state of every corner a reflection of his compulsive need to be in control of even the most trivial aspects of his life.

He believed it stemmed from the jarring experience of not being entirely in control of his mind and body. His thoughts and actions being dictated by a force that was so deeply riddled within himself that it consumed him. To be played with by a power inside him yet beyond his control-that would never happen again.

Now he had become obsessed with reasserting his independence, feeling empty and vulnerable whenever a person chose for him or attempted to persuade him to think their way and not his own. His friend Ryou would jokingly imply that his dark side had never left him, that his relentless urge to have complete control over himself was turning him into the alter-personality he had conquered in Battle City.

_"Be careful Malik, your Yami is showing,"_he'd tease.

Malik smiled at the thought, he missed Ryou's company. But he did not want to involve himself further with the likes of those who deemed him untrustworthy and Ryou hung around a crowd who he had, and at the time, abused, used and betrayed.

Of course, this is when his other self had taken the possession of his core personality, regressing his hikari state into the dark corners of his mind. By that point, his soul room had become filled with more and more shadow energy as his psycho-sadomasochistic yami grew stronger with each Shadow Game.

He remembered screaming in pain as the darkness tortured him while he watched the prolonged torture of others from the soul window projected by his yami's third eye.

He'd struggled against the brutalizing strength that was tearing him into two dualistic pieces. Malik had lost himself to Marik; Malik had lost his mind. The threads of sanity he had held onto, weakening and slipping like blood between his fingertips while his yami laughed at the sorrow of the souls he afflicted.

He had become an uncontrollable monster with the neanderthalic impulse to value the suffering of others to acquire feelings of erotic pleasure. Even then, their pain was his yami's and Yami Marik both inflicted and received pain with orgiastic enthusiasm. But he was no longer this person, he was Malik now.

However, being that way had severed his chance of ever being able to get close with other people. He traded in his psychosis for being anti-social instead, and it pained him to know that he'd never be able to build intimate relationships with others. From them not trusting him and him not being able to trust himself.

As Marik walked across the sand dunes, wisps of black smoke wafted up and around him, leaving behind the parts of his body that had been claimed by the shadow realm. He held up his deformed arms and watched as they took shape in front of him, his wrists corded with veins. He smirked, leaving space for musky miasma to reek out from his mouth, yet the dark energy tasted sweet on his tongue. He flicked out the moist muscle and slid it over his upper and lower lip, his animalistic smirk testing the elasticity of the skin on his face as his leer grew frenetic.

He could see the headstone of the tomb-keepers housing unit glimmer underneath the rising sun, the Eye of Ra emblazoned on the walls in a polished gold. Sentries guarded the main entrance; their eyes slanted coldly facing East. Marik let out a gruff chuckle underneath his breath before plunging into the darkness cast on the ground by the buildings blocking the sun. Marik looked up as clouds enveloped the sky, trapping the sunlight in a sea of bland grey.

_It is time._

'Snap!'

One of the guards stepped back and flung the sling that holstered his gun in front of him, gripping the automatic weapon with steady hands. His comrades' head had been swivelled disproportionately, his eyes communicating a contradictory mix of surprise and obliviousness. There was another abrupt 'snap', but this time it was softer than the sound of cartilage breaking. The guard glimpsed over his shoulders and then turned his body to get a view of his blindside.

A calm breeze passed by, causing the guards hair to bristle against his face and obscure his vision. He heard another snap and turned around, his weapon held up, ready to fire. A knowing shudder drummed through him as he sensed a presence behind him.

Black smoke slivered in front of him and he suddenly felt his air supply cut off. The shadow energy was seeping into every orifice of his body, draining him of his life force. The gun clattered to the ground as a warm appendage traced the outer shell of his ear.

**_"You taste of fear Hitomi..."_**

Marik inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring and eyes widening in maniacal ecstasy as the Orichalcos Seal on his chest absorbed the soul of the dying guard.

The body dropped into the hot Egyptian dust, nearly knocking aside the corpse with the broken neck. Marik stepped over the body and flung the large tomb-house doors open, the dust on the ground whipping against his face as the wind carried it.

A woman cloaked in white veils knelt prostrate on the hieroglyph'd tiles at the end of the walkway. She was uttering mantras to _Ra_, her body slick with cold sweat. She did not get up when the doors closed behind Marik with a pronounced 'thud,' announcing his arrival. He stood at the doorway, and watched her for awhile, his eyes darkening with each passing minute.

She eventually got up and turned to face him, a white opaque cloth covering everything but her eyes. She reached up and tentatively removed it.

"Brother..." she said in a hushed tone. She began to walk towards him until Marik angrily interrupted her.

**_"I am not your brother."_**

His face contorted with dark veins slithering under the surface of his skin like snakes or borrowing worms. He balled his hand into a fist, the bony tendons peaking up and the skin tightening around the points.

**_"That Marik is no longer a part of me."_**

A bead of water formed in the corner of the veiled women's eyes, she shook her head as if doing such a thing would rid Yami Marik of his somber convictions. She clasped her hands together and brought them up to her face as if in prayer.

"I don't know how the darkness was able to consume you once more Marik, but I-,"

Marik burst into fits of hysterical laughter that sprung up from the seeds of wrath and power that shielded him from feelings such as sympathy or remorse. This woman, his 'sister', spoke as if the darkness had consumed him involuntarily. That it had ravaged his mind, body and soul without Marik's acquiescence. He chortled and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, scoffing while doing so.

_** "The darkness did not consume me Ishizu. I came into this world with the spirit and the body of an Orichalcos Yami."**_

Ishizu gasped and her face flushed empty of the confident liveliness it once had. Being replaced with an expression of raw terror.

"No...It can't be. You were banished to the Shadow Realm," Ishizu wheezed. She suddenly felt light-headed.

_**"You're right. I**_ was _**banished to the Shadow Realm. But you of all people should know that banishment out of one realm does not equate to non-existence. You see Ishizu, it is my fate to rule as Pharaoh, if it were not so, the Leviathan would not have released me."**_

"The Leviathan...?" Ishizu blinked rapidly in bewilderment, her voice shaking.

Marik grabbed the collar of his robe and locked gazes with the frightened Ishizu as he tore the article of clothing from his body; revealing the Orichalcos Seal, bolded in a murky green on his tightly muscles torso.

_**"This seal, along with the infinite power of the Shadow Realm, gives me the power to collect the souls of those who fall during my Shadow Games."**_

Ishizu's irises dilated and she could feel herself losing conscientiousness. She wondered if it were because Marik was using his shadow powers against her or if her disorientation was triggered by her shock.

_**"You don't look too well Ishizu,"**_Marik leered.

Ishizu let out a deep, pain staked groan and fell to her knees, she heaved and clasped her throat as a panic attack began to settle in. She couldn't breathe.

_**"The only reason I am keeping you alive is so you can send a message to the Pharaoh. Tell him that..."**_

Joey Wheeler and Duke Devlin were playing an impassioned game of _Dungeon Dice Monsters_when Honda, Ryou and Yugi bolted into the room talking animatedly amongst themselves. Joey pumped his fist in the air and let a triumphant holler just as Duke's life points counted down to zero.

"Another victory! How does it feel to lose at your own game?" Joey taunted, putting his arms behind his head and resting it there. He kicked one foot over the other, placing it on his knee. His face beamed with pride. Duke feigned disappointment.

"Shame,"-he let out an exasperated sigh-"shame that you're so accomplished in _Dice Monsters_ but can't even hold your own in _Duel Monsters_."

Duke looked up from underneath the thick fringe of his hair to catch the vindictive gaze of Joey, who was already up on his feet raising his fist around. He grabbed the hem of Duke's shirt and held him up to his face.

"This was just a warm-up! Why don't we duel _fo'real_right here, right now?"

Duke was on the verge of erupting into an episode of deriding laughter when someone sharing the room obnoxiously cleared their throat. Both men turned to face the source and looked into the face of a fuming Téa.

"Both of you need to grow up!" she yelled.

"What are you tryna' say, Téa?" Joey retorted, the muscle above his eyebrow twitching furiously.

"I think she's trying to say that your emotions are getting the best of you," Yami Yugi intervened.

Joey released Duke and shrugged awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess," he hesitantly admitted.  
>"Now that that's done,"-Duke dusted off his pants as he sat up-, "why don't we try some of Téa's pie?"<p>

Everyone nodded and made their way to the kitchen, where they caught Ryou greedily devouring a fat slice of it.

_"Ryou!"_

All except Yugi let out an annoyed groan.

"I'll be in my room if you need me," he said callously. He excused himself without the acknowledgement of the others and as he closed the door to his room behind him, he transfigured into his soul room; the center of his psyche.

His younger, more trusting self stared blankly at him at first and then an expression of understanding surfaced as their mind link grew stronger.

"Sense that Hikari?" Yami Yugi asked, the light from their Millennium Items pushing ambiguous shadows to the edge of the room. His hikari nodded.

"It feels as if the entire Shadow Realm has emerged into our world," the smaller Yugi noted.

"No," the Yami paused aloud but their mind link allowed for his Hikari to hear him finish the sentence as a thought. The words as loud and clear as if he had actually spoken it.

"No," _it's something stronger than that._

The older Yami could feel the concern of his Hikari, as a distinct shudder that felt like pins and needles probing their skin.

"Yugi!" Honda's voice bounced off the walls of their soul room, followed by the call of Téa, Joey and Duke.

The walls of his soul room faded into reality and Yugi opened his eyes in his hikari form. He flung the door open and ran to them. Honda had the phone in his hand.

"It's Odion."


End file.
